Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare consultant and analyst with 20 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. Contact her at @ziegerhealth on Twitter or visit her site at Zieger Healthcare.

A new study suggests that team training of healthcare staffers can cut patient mortality and also reduce medical errors. The study, which was conducted by multiple universities and two federal agencies, also found that such training improved staff members’ learning skills and use of such skills, as well as boosting financial outcomes, clinical performance and patient satisfaction.

Participants in the research program included Rice University, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the University of Central Florida, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 129 prior studies, which looked at programs designed to improve team-based knowledge, skills, attitudes and problem-solving interactions, as well as developing coordination, cooperation, communication and leadership skills.

To conduct their analysis, researchers looked at the impact of team training programs among 23,018 participants. The studies being analyzed looked at how team training affected quality of care, customer service, patient satisfaction and other relevant variables. Participants in the team trainings included clinicians, allied health staffers, support staffers and healthcare students. The trainings were conducted at facilities ranging from small clinics to large hospitals in the U.S. and abroad.

Researchers found that team training can reduce patient mortality by 15%, and reduce medical errors by 19%. The training program also boosted employees’ learning of new skills by 31% and on-the-job use of such skills by 25%. In addition, the training improved financial outcomes of healthcare organizations by 15%. And team training was associated with a 34% improvement in clinical performance and 15% growth in patient satisfaction, researchers said.

While this study didn’t address health IT teams, it’s easy to see how such cross-disciplinary efforts might help IT staffers succeed.

As Rick Krohn of HealthDataManagement aptly puts it, health IT teams often cope with “a spaghetti bowl of boutique applications, systems and external linkages,” which creates major stresses and leaves little time for outreach. In other words, as things stand, keeping rank and file HIT staffers from burning out is a challenge – and keeping them aware of end user needs is a daunting task.

But if health IT managers have at least sporadic team meetings with outside departments that depend on them – including clinical, financial and operational units – a big uptick in learning, sharing and coordination may be possible. As the study underscores, people have to be taught how to work with their partners in the organization, no matter how professional everyone is. Fostering a cooperative exchange between health IT front-liners and users can make that happen.